Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 327, Issue 5970, Pages 1246-1250Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1182221
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Funding
- International Arctic Research Centre through a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Russian Foundation for Basic Research
- NSF
- Swedish Research Council
- Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
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Remobilization to the atmosphere of only a small fraction of the methane held in East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) sediments could trigger abrupt climate warming, yet it is believed that sub-sea permafrost acts as a lid to keep this shallow methane reservoir in place. Here, we show that more than 5000 at-sea observations of dissolved methane demonstrates that greater than 80% of ESAS bottom waters and greater than 50% of surface waters are supersaturated with methane regarding to the atmosphere. The current atmospheric venting flux, which is composed of a diffusive component and a gradual ebullition component, is on par with previous estimates of methane venting from the entire World Ocean. Leakage of methane through shallow ESAS waters needs to be considered in interactions between the biogeosphere and a warming Arctic climate.
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